I have emailed back and forth a few times with our social worker, today. She needed to clarify a couple of small details in our home study report and told me she would be sending it to our adoption agency this very day! :) Our agency will review it and let our social worker know if any changes and/or additions need to be made. We are told this process will take 1-2 weeks.
The next step will be to submit our home study to the state of IL for their approval. More waiting!
We celebrated Easter and Nathan's birthday with Kevin's family this past weekend. We took the opportunity to take a few photos with various family members. I haven't had a chance to upload them to my computer, yet, but hopefully they are "suitable" for our dossier so we can be finished with that step.
Family
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Nothing new
Just a quick note to let you know where we're at. We are eagerly awaiting news of our home study being sent to our adoption agency. I will be thrilled if I hear something by the end of this week! Nothing else is going on, adoption wise. I am so thankful our kids keep me busy. Otherwise, I would have gone nuts by now! And to think the waiting gets much harder once you have a referral...
Hope everyone had a good Easter! I know we did! Christ has risen!
Hope everyone had a good Easter! I know we did! Christ has risen!
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
IL background checks are here
Our social worker emailed me, today, to let me know our IL background checks are in! I am so relieved!! She is finishing up our home study and expects to have it on her supervisor's desk by the end of the week! I don't know how long it will take her supervisor to sign off on it. Is it possible that our home study will be sent to our adoption agency by the end of next week?!
Looks like I'd better get my FedEx envelopes ready to go- one to send our I-800A application to USCIS and one to send our completed documents to a courier to be certified and authenticated in Chicago!
I am jazzed!
Looks like I'd better get my FedEx envelopes ready to go- one to send our I-800A application to USCIS and one to send our completed documents to a courier to be certified and authenticated in Chicago!
I am jazzed!
Monday, April 14, 2014
Still waiting
We're in a waiting phase. Our social worker is finishing up our home study. We have not received word that our IL background checks are back so I'm assuming they have not arrived as of yet. I just emailed our social worker so we'll see what she has to say about it. I'm concerned that IL is ignoring us or losing our requests. The fact that they will not respond to our social worker is not comforting to say the least! We may end up having to wait an extra MONTH for the completion of our home study because of this. I am trying to remind myself that God is in control and there may be a reason for this that we cannot see right now.
We also ran into another possible delay, last week. It had to do with our financial info. After talking with our social worker and our adoption agency, I think we have it straightened out and simplified. Whew! I was not liking the idea of having to re-do a couple documents.
I have a little more work to do on our pictures, so perhaps I should work on those to help the time pass. We have our 3 "couples" pictures on disc- just need to have them printed. We also have 6 "family life" pictures ready to be printed and need 2 more. These must have Kevin and me in them, plus at least 1 other person (family, friends, neighbors). I now have my 6 extra passport style photos but Kevin needs to get his done.
I really don't have much else to work on. Besides the home study and I-800A, all of our documents are done and notarized. We have our passports. I've copied everything, filled out virtually all of the I-800A application, and filled out the application to have our documents authenticated by the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. I started a FedEx account for when we're ready to send documents. I guess I could pick up the FedEx envelopes and labels I'll need. I'm just not very good at waiting on other people...
In the meantime, our summer calendar is taking shape with various camps and activities. I try to maintain a careful balance between activities and down time- not always easy to do! For starters, I am coaching Rebecca's softball team, again. Should be fun!
We also ran into another possible delay, last week. It had to do with our financial info. After talking with our social worker and our adoption agency, I think we have it straightened out and simplified. Whew! I was not liking the idea of having to re-do a couple documents.
I have a little more work to do on our pictures, so perhaps I should work on those to help the time pass. We have our 3 "couples" pictures on disc- just need to have them printed. We also have 6 "family life" pictures ready to be printed and need 2 more. These must have Kevin and me in them, plus at least 1 other person (family, friends, neighbors). I now have my 6 extra passport style photos but Kevin needs to get his done.
I really don't have much else to work on. Besides the home study and I-800A, all of our documents are done and notarized. We have our passports. I've copied everything, filled out virtually all of the I-800A application, and filled out the application to have our documents authenticated by the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. I started a FedEx account for when we're ready to send documents. I guess I could pick up the FedEx envelopes and labels I'll need. I'm just not very good at waiting on other people...
In the meantime, our summer calendar is taking shape with various camps and activities. I try to maintain a careful balance between activities and down time- not always easy to do! For starters, I am coaching Rebecca's softball team, again. Should be fun!
Friday, April 4, 2014
Last home study visit done
Kevin finished his China-specific parent training last weekend, so we are both fully "educated" now. ;) We have 2 official certificates of completion- one from our home study agency and one from our adoption agency.
Yesterday, we had our last home study visit! It was the first time our social worker came to our home and the first time she met the children. I will admit that I was a wee bit nervous. I wasn't concerned about the house (although I did take the opportunity to do some spring cleaning beforehand), but I was concerned about the children's behavior- namely Nathan. He can be a wild card at times. As it turned out, the kids mostly did fine. After the initial excitement of having a visitor, they settled down and pretty much left us alone until the very end, when Nathan thought he should receive some attention from the social worker. We filled out a few more forms and did some talking. Our social worker had a few questions to clarify some things and then we took her on a tour of the house. Caetlyn was doing her homework throughout the visit, but she did chime in quite a bit. She even asked some questions. I think this visit made the adoption process more real for the children.
Our social worker expects to have our home study document completed in about 2 weeks. We have one slight wrinkle (get used to it, right?)- our IL background checks have not come back. They typically take up to 6 weeks, which would be April 11, so they are still within the expected time range. Still, our social worker contacted them to make sure the requests had been received and she was unable to get a response. She went ahead and re-submitted the requests by a different route just to be sure. She cannot complete our home study without those background checks!
Once the home study is finished, she will send us a draft to look over. Then, it will go to our adoption agency, followed by her supervisor and the state of IL. I pray that this approval process goes smoothly! We will be celebrating when this big step is complete!
In family news, our son turned 5 this week. He is now a whole hand! I will close with a picture of him opening one of his gifts.
Yesterday, we had our last home study visit! It was the first time our social worker came to our home and the first time she met the children. I will admit that I was a wee bit nervous. I wasn't concerned about the house (although I did take the opportunity to do some spring cleaning beforehand), but I was concerned about the children's behavior- namely Nathan. He can be a wild card at times. As it turned out, the kids mostly did fine. After the initial excitement of having a visitor, they settled down and pretty much left us alone until the very end, when Nathan thought he should receive some attention from the social worker. We filled out a few more forms and did some talking. Our social worker had a few questions to clarify some things and then we took her on a tour of the house. Caetlyn was doing her homework throughout the visit, but she did chime in quite a bit. She even asked some questions. I think this visit made the adoption process more real for the children.
Our social worker expects to have our home study document completed in about 2 weeks. We have one slight wrinkle (get used to it, right?)- our IL background checks have not come back. They typically take up to 6 weeks, which would be April 11, so they are still within the expected time range. Still, our social worker contacted them to make sure the requests had been received and she was unable to get a response. She went ahead and re-submitted the requests by a different route just to be sure. She cannot complete our home study without those background checks!
Once the home study is finished, she will send us a draft to look over. Then, it will go to our adoption agency, followed by her supervisor and the state of IL. I pray that this approval process goes smoothly! We will be celebrating when this big step is complete!
In family news, our son turned 5 this week. He is now a whole hand! I will close with a picture of him opening one of his gifts.
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